Antonia Pritchard

Dr | Visiting Scientist

Oncogenomics

antonia.pritchard@qimrberghofer.edu.au

CAREER HISTORY

Dr Pritchard completed her PhD in 2005, focused on the genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease and related phenotypes, at the University of Birmingham, UK. She moved to QIMR, Brisbane, Australia in 2006, to continue working on the genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease with Dr Corinne Lendon. She then joined Prof. John Upham’s respiratory research group at the University of Queensland in 2009, investigating the innate and adaptive immune responses to respiratory viruses, and how they influence pathogenic processes in asthma. After this productive post-doctoral position, Dr Pritchard took the opportunity to combine her genetics and immunology skills in Prof. Nicholas Hayward’s Oncogenomics group at QIMR Berghofer. Her projects included the genetics of familial melanoma, the genomics of melanomas and immunological response to melanoma. It was under Prof. Hayward’s mentorship, Dr Pritchard found her research calling and has worked in these project areas since 2012.

In 2017, Dr Pritchard took up a tenured research position in Scotland, at the University of the Highlands and Islands, where she leads a melanoma research group. She is a visiting scientist at QIMR Berghofer, with the Oncogenomics group.

 

CURRENT APPOINTMENTS

• Senior Lecturer, University of the Highlands and Islands
• Visiting Scientist, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

 

PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS

Senior Research Officer, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

 

ORCID NUMBER

0000-0001-5336-0454

 

RESEARCHER ID

F-4288-2010

 

CURRENT AREA OF RESEARCH

• Genetic predisposition to familial melanoma
• Genomics of melanoma development and metastasis
• Immunological response to melanoma

 

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

• “Whole genome landscapes of uveal melanoma show an ultraviolet radiation signature in iris tumours”; PA Johansson et al.; Nature communications 11 (1), 1-8, 2020
• “Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes”; The International Cancer Genome Consortium; Nature 578 (7793), 82, 2020
• “Identifying neoantigens for use in immunotherapy”; S Hutchison and AL Pritchard; Mammalian Genome 29 (11-12), 714-730, 2019
• “Comprehensive Study of the Clinical Phenotype of Germline BAP1 Variant-Carrying Families Worldwide”; S Walpole et al.; Journal of the National Cancer Institute 110 (12), 1328-1341, 2018
• “Whole-genome landscapes of major melanoma subtypes”; NK Hayward et al; Nature 545 (7653), 175-180, 2017
• “Exome sequencing to predict neoantigens in melanoma” AL Pritchard et al; Cancer Immunology Research 3 (9), 992-998, 2015

 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

• British Society of Immunology
• CIMT (Cancer Immunotherapy Society)
• MyMelanoma
• GenoMEL
• BAP1 Interest Group

 

AWARDS RECOGNITION

2020: HISA Research Supervisor of the Year

 

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

2005: PhD, Genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease, University of Birmingham

2001: B.Med.Sc (1^st class hons; specialisation in Cellular and Molecular Biology), University of Birmingham